Hawaiian Falls

Some friends of ours invited us to the Hawaiian Falls Water Park near Roanoke today. They had some guest passes that were going to expire in a few weeks, so they asked if we’d like to join them for a day of water and sun. Troy loves the water, so we thought he might enjoy it.

It’s not a huge water park, but it’s still pretty good size, definitely big enough for Troy. They had a good setup too, with slides and stuff specifically for smaller kids, while still having the bigger slides for bigger kids and adults. They also had a wave pool, lazy river, and obstacle course.

Troy was not a big fan of the wave pool. When the first wave hit us, and the water went over his head, he was sputtering and gasping. He clung to me like his life depended on it, even though the water was only like two feet deep, and he could technically stand. He didn’t let go until the waves stopped. On the other hand, he loved the lazy river. I sat down in an intertube, and he sat on my lap. We floated around the windy, twisty passageway, occasionally getting shot with water by frog and turtle statues watching from the sides. I’m not if it was the speed, the excitement of getting shot with water from the frog, or the connection with me; but I couldn’t get him off of the river. Round and round we’d go, and when wed get to the end, he’d say, “Go again!”

We managed to get him to go down a few of the smaller slides, mostly by having someone slide with him. I think he’d have been more interested if he’d had another kid to play with, but the son of our friends who’s five wanted to do the bigger slides instead. Troy kept trying to go with him to do the bigger slides, but I wouldn’t let him. Even though technically he was tall enough, barely, he wouldn’t have wanted to ride them alone, and for safety reasons, you couldn’t ride them together. He didn’t like that, and I couldn’t really explain it to him.

The other issue with the slides was that they had these two giant pineapple cups that would fill up with water. When they got full, they’d tip over and splash everything with water. The amount of water and the randomness of the event scared Troy, so he was timid to want to stay anywhere near them. Seeing that he wasn’t really enjoying himself, we moved on.

Next to the lazy river there was a giant mushroom with water pouring out of the top of it. The water cascaded down, creating a waterfall curtain all the way around the mushroom. At first Troy didn’t want to go near it. But after I picked him up and promised to walk through it with him, he agreed. We ran through it really fast and stood inside the falling water. To my surprise, Troy was laughing. I asked him if he wanted to go again, and with a huge smile on his face, he said, “Yeah!” So, we went in and out of the mushroom several times, getting thoroughly drenched in the process.

The only other thing that he really liked was a small two-foot high slide that looked like a shark. He could climb up the back and slide out of its mouth. He did this over and over and over again.

By this point it was getting into early afternoon. Troy was already an hour past his nap time. Not wanting to push our luck, we decided to leave, and that’s when the ballistic meltdown occurred. Troy didn’t want to leave. Coupled with his tiredness, he went into full on fit mode. We had to drag him kicking and screaming to the car. And once he got there, he passed out almost immediately. Unfortunately, the car ride only lasted about 30 minutes. When we got home to take him out, he woke up and couldn’t go back to sleep. I guess we’ll have to see how this will play out now.